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Marko Maksimović (Serbian Cyrillic: Марко Максимовић; born 1947) is a Serbian former politician. He served in the Yugoslavian parliament and was the mayor of Šabac from 1993 to 2000. During his time as an elected official, Maksimović was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

Private career

Maksimović is a graduated traffic engineer.

Politician

Socialist Party of Serbia representative

The Socialist Party of Serbia dominated Serbian and Yugoslavian political life in the 1990s, under the authoritarian leadership of Slobodan Milošević.

In May 1992, the newly established Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, held the first election for its lower house (i.e., the Chamber of Citizens) under a system of mixed proportional representation. Maksimović was elected for the Šabac division as the Socialist Party won a majority victory overall.

Following protests, a new federal election was held in December 1992 under a system of full proportional representation. Maksimović appeared in the ninth position on the SPS's list for the expanded Užice division. The Socialists won five out of eleven seats in the division, and he was not assigned a new mandate. (For this election, the first one-third of the assembly mandates were assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, and the remaining two-thirds were assigned to other candidates at the discretion of the sponsoring parties. Maksimović could have been given a mandate despite his low position on the list, but this did not occur.)

He was elected to the Šabac municipal assembly in the December 1992 Serbian local elections, which took place concurrently with the federal vote. He was chosen afterward as the assembly president, a position that was at the time equivalent to mayor. In 1995, he signed a twinning agreement with Argostoli on the island of Cephalonia in Greece; the "Abrašević" arts group afterward began making annual retreats to the Greek city, which also became known for welcoming students and athletes from Šabac.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's ten existing electoral divisions were divided into thirty-six smaller divisions for the 1996 Yugoslavian parliamentary election. The Socialist Party's alliance won two of the three seats in the new Šabac constituency, and Maksimović was elected to another term in the federal assembly. The SPS's alliance won the election, and Maksimović served afterward as a supporter of the federal ministry.

Maksimović was also re-elected to the Šabac assembly in the 1996 Serbian local elections, which again took place concurrently with the federal vote. These elections were marked by weeks of controversy, as the SPS governing authorities refused to recognize victories by the opposition Zajedno alliance in many of Serbia's major cities. In Šabac, neither the SPS nor Zajedno won a clear victory, and the results in one particular ward important to the overall balance of power were heavily disputed. The SPS delegates ultimately convened the assembly in spite of an opposition boycott, ratified all of the municipality's mandates, and elected Maksimović to a new term as mayor. Although the opposition considered his rule to be illegitimate, he remained in office for the remainder of the term. During this period, Maksimović was also the leader of the SPS's board for the Mačva District and was considered a possible rising star in the party, given the relative dearth of cadres from Mačva in its upper echelons.

2000 elections and after

Slobodan Milošević was defeated by Vojislav Koštunica in the 2000 Yugoslavian presidential election and subsequently fell from power. This was a watershed moment in Serbian and Yugoslavian politics, resulting in the fall of the SPS from its previously dominant position. Maksimović was not re-elected to the Yugoslavian assembly in the concurrent parliamentary vote; online sources do not indicate if he was a candidate. The Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) also defeated the Socialist Party in the 2000 Serbian local elections, and Maksimović's tenure as mayor came to an end.

Shortly after Milošević's defeat, some dissident members of the SPS formed a breakaway group called the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP). Maksimović joined the new party and appeared in the sixty-fifth position on its electoral list in a snap Serbian parliamentary election held in December 2000. The list did not cross the electoral threshold for assembly representation.

Serbia introduced the direct election of mayors in 2004 local elections, and Maksimović ran in Šabac under the banner of his own local political movement, Voice of People. He finished in seventh place with less than five per cent of the vote. He does not appear to have sought a return to public life after this time.

Electoral record

Federal (FR Yugoslavia)

Local (Šabac)

References

1. Federal Deputies, Archived 1999-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, Socialist Party of Serbia, 7 October 1999, accessed 10 February 2024.
2. KANDIDATI ZA SAVEZNE POSLANIKE U VEĆU GRAĐANA SKUPŠTINE SRJ: SOCIJALISTIžKE PARTIJE SRBIJEIZBORNA JEDINICA (4 - UčICE (11 poslanika).
3. ИЗБОРИ '92: ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1993), pp. 15, 30.
4. Miroljub Mijušković, "Bratimljenje Celja i Šapca", Politika, 12 April 2024, accessed 25 December 2024.
5. ИЗБОРИ '96: ВЕЋЕ ГРАЂАНА САВЕЗНЕ СКУПШТИНЕ, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1996), p. 57.
6. Federal Deputies, Archived 1999-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, Socialist Party of Serbia, 7 October 1999, accessed 10 February 2024.
7. Izbori Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova u Republici Srbiji, 1996, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 64-65.
8. Miroljub Mijušković, "Svi šabački gradonačelnici", Politika, 25 December 2023, accessed 25 December 2024.
9. Branko Vicentijević, "Civija u Gonsalesovim tockovima", Naša borba, 4 August 1997, accessed 25 December 2024.
10. The SPS won a single seat in Šabac in the 2000 Yugoslavian election, which was automatically assigned to its main candidate Jovan Zebić. See "Ko su poslanici" Archived 5 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Vreme, 28 September 2000, accessed 10 November 2021.
11. Izbori, 2000. Za Odbornike Skupština Opština i Gradova, Bureau of Statistics – Republic of Serbia, pp. 51-52.
12. Miroljub Mijušković, "Svi šabački gradonačelnici", Politika, 25 December 2023, accessed 25 December 2024.
13. Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 23. децембра 2000. године и 10. јануара 2001. године – ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Демократска социјалистичка партија – Милорад Вучелић), Archived 2023-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, Republic Election Commission, Republic of Serbia, accessed 6 October 2024.
14. UKUPNI REZULTATI LOKALNIH IZBORA ZA PREDSEDNIKA OPŠTINE ŠABAC and IZBORI ZA PREDSEDNIKA OPŠTINE ŠABAC 03.10.2004 - DRUGI KRUG, Archived 2005-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Šabac, accessed 24 December 2024.
15. ИЗБОРИ '92: КОНАЧНИ РЕЗУЛТАТИ, Republic of Serbia and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Department of Statistics (1992), p. 12.
16. "Demokratska stranka Srbije - Vojislav Koštunica", B92, 9 December 2003, accessed 24 December 2024.
17. Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, p. 297.
18. Direktorijum lokalnih samouprava u Srbiji, Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), September 2005, p. 297.
19. UKUPNI REZULTATI LOKALNIH IZBORA ZA PREDSEDNIKA OPŠTINE ŠABAC and IZBORI ZA PREDSEDNIKA OPŠTINE ŠABAC 03.10.2004 - DRUGI KRUG, Archived 2005-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Municipality of Šabac, accessed 24 December 2024.

• 1947 births
• Living people
• People from Šabac
• Members of the Chamber of Citizens (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
• Mayors of places in Serbia
• Socialist Party of Serbia politicians
• Democratic Socialist Party (Serbia) politicians